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Friday, 13 January 2012

The First Post of 2012

A happy new year to you all from Worcester Cathedral Library!The first two weeks of the year have proved especially hectic, so I have been unable to update the blog until now.But what better way to repel those Friday 13th blues than to catch up with the Library news.The volunteers and I have been beavering away creating a new exhibition for the Cathedral, which will run between 23rd January and 10th February in the Dean’s Chapel.Entitled ‘Worcester Never Looked Better: Cathedral and Town in the Nineteenth Century’, it will use archive documents and photographs to give a flavour of the vibrancy and personality of the Victorian Cathedral.We’ve come across such an array of fascinating material tucked away in draws, boxes, trunks and cupboards that it’s proving difficult to trim it down for the exhibition.For those who are unable to get to the Cathedral to see the finished product, you will certainly not miss out.Once everything is up and running I will post some of the highlights on the blog, so watch this space!

Today’s date got me thinking how often research comes down to luck, no matter how methodical one thinks one is.In the Library we very often rely on the knowledge or instincts of our volunteers to lead us to the material we need, rather than on the catalogues and databases.Computers have yet to achieve the sort of ‘joined-up thinking’ that people are good at!So we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers for the hard work that they put in over the course of last year, which was accomplished with great skill and wit and enthusiasm.

Personally I have a very busy year to look forward to.I will be working towards my Postgraduate Certificate in Heritage Management at the University of Birmingham/Ironbridge Institute, as well as contributing a paper to the International Medieval Congress at Leeds in July.Hopefully I will be able to persuade a few of the medievalists back to Worcester Cathedral Library over the summer!It’s going to be a good year.